Capita Symonds Capita Symonds wins place on Crossrail framework

Capita Symonds has been named as one of the 12 firms who have secured Design Framework Agreements.

See the full announcement on the Crossrail website

Sound Advice from Capita Symonds' Acoustics Team

Negative sounding financial phraseology has dominated media reports for some months now, as reports of a global credit crunch have followed on from over-ambitious bank lending in the US sub-prime property market. The ripples are now being felt further afield, with initial talk of belt tightening now leading to gloomier fears of economic recession. For stadium and arena managers, it seems that investment plans will be under greater scrutiny than ever.

But for the paying public, attention to detail when it comes to the audible experience at their favourite venue can no longer come second best – especially when the ticket cost for entertainment represents a larger percentage of their remaining disposable income. What’s more, there is the increasingly tempting option of saving on a ticket price and staying at home, perhaps with a cheaper takeaway meal, enjoying the sophisticated sonic delights of 5.1 home cinema sound on a widescreen high definition plasma TV display – why bother with muddy sound when you can catch the game on your sofa instead?

So doing nothing to compete with this attractive alternative is not an option. Budget restraints may force a compromise, but it’s clear that many venues in Europe, for instance, do need to catch up with their North American counterparts and overcome some of the structural and legislative factors that have held back their development in this area. At the ‘top end’ of the market, among Premiership football clubs for example, this work has already seen results. But for other facilities, such as those in the ‘middle market’, there is plenty of ground to make up. For them, one big question is how to achieve this?

Reaching the limit

Daryl Prasad, Associate Director at Capita Symonds Acoustics, believes market emphasis has moved to improved quality of sound and a switch towards improved technology that’s better able to direct sound within a venue. “The old days of managers being simply able to exponentially increase sound volume levels are gone – environmental considerations and local authority limits on acoustic emissions in the area surrounding a venue have changed that.”

He adds that the emphasis on quality and directional sound is being achieved by methods including the use of large phase arrays that angle sound so that it’s projected onto an audience and does not create ‘spillage’ beyond a boundary. These phase arrays can also be used for in-house systems to avoid creating unwanted reflections and echoes that can typically cloud and muddy the sound quality. Cardioid, and super cardioid, sub-woofers are another method of ensuring that low frequency energy is directional and have proved especially useful at music festivals such as the recent Glastonbury event in the UK, to prevent spillage.

Daryl Prasad, who’s spent 10 years in consulting and acoustics, including previous spells with Arup Acoustics and BDP Acoustics, points out that new EU health and safety regulations relating to occupational noise came into effect for the music and entertainment sectors in the UK this April.

The EU Directive (2003/10/EC) on which the Control of Noise at Work Regulations are based allowed these sectors a two-year transitional period. Arenas and stadiums hosting concerts should check that staff are not being exposed to sound volumes beyond the stated high noise levels – namely 85 decibels (daily or weekly average exposure) – without providing hearing protection and hearing protection zones.

Clearly, then, entertainment sound control is an important issue both for venues and consumers. Capita Symonds’ team of acoustic consultants provide a full range of services relating to entertainment noise. As specialists in sound, noise monitoring, acoustics and IT solutions they have worked on venues including Chelsea FC, Hong Kong Stadium, Eircom Park, The Point in Dublin and the new Wembley national stadium.

For further information on the services which Capita Symonds Acoustics can provide, please contact Daryl Prasad or visit our website

Christmas Countdown

Feeling festive?

To get you into the spirit we've launched the Capita Symonds Christmas Countdown Calendar(that's a mouthfull!). Each day we'll have a handy hint or some festive fun all the way up to the big day itself - so visit daily!

http://www.xmas-countdown.com/

Capita Bobrowski rock out with AC/DC

Capita Bobrowski has been working on the spectacular stage set for AC/DC’s ‘Black Ice’ World Tour.

The design features a 6m high ‘Rock 'n' Roll Train' (the title of the group's recent single) which sits on a special track at a sharp 14 degree incline. The show opens with a brief 'Rock 'n' Roll Train' film segment before the train actually runs down the track in a blaze of lights, smoke and pyrotechnics. Lead guitarist Angus Young then leaps out of the structure to start the show.



Malcolm Richards from the Southampton office has been working closely with Richard Hartman, ACDC's Production Manager, and Mark Fisher, the tour Art Director, on the set's various structural engineering aspects.

Malcolm – who recently advised on Paul McCartney's acclaimed concert in Tel Aviv - is also currently working on George Michael and Alicia Keys' December gigs in the Middle East. He has previously designed theatres, studios and venues such as the revamp of the famous Abbey Road studios, De Montford Hall in Leicester and Riverside Arts Centre in London.

Following the current North American leg, the ACDC tour comes to Europe for two months including dates at London 02 Arena (April 14), Manchester MEN Arena (21), Birmingham LG Arena (23) The tour then heads to South America and Japan before culminating in Australia/New Zealand in 2010.

Find out more about Capita Bobrowski

Richard Goes Out on a Limb

Richard Limb, Capita Symonds’ Director of Leisure Safety, has successfully completed a 1,700 mile solo cycle ride across Australia.

The daunting trip was along the Stuart Highway – known locally as ‘The Track’ – which stretches from Port Augusta in the south to Darwin in the north.

As the route crosses some of the remotest and hottest parts of Australia - including the infamous ‘Red Centre’ – Richard often faced distances of 150 miles between ANY human habitations, not to mention stifling temperatures of 52C

During the ride, Richard also faced forced regular bush camps; serious water shortages which meant drinking potentially contaminated rain water; lack of shelter; millions of flies and ants; and chronic inflammation of the ulna nerve thanks to the constant pressure on his hands – not to mention an inability at times to pass water, produce saliva and digest food!

Half a million pedal strokes were required, approximately 186,000 calories of energy were burned, and 500 litres of water consumed.

When asked why he did it, his reply was: “The challenge, adventure, fun and my mobile phone did not work!”

Good on y' mate!!!

Find out more about Leaisre and Event Safety from Capita Symonds

Salute For Lewis

Capita Bobrowski recently provided structural engineering for a massive 12m x 8m picture of Lewis Hamilton.

The picture – produced by contemporary British artist Ian Cook - was on display at an event to celebrate the drivers Formula One world title.

Because of the tense finish to the F1 season, the event was put on hold until the very last second, meaning the team from our Southampton office (including Simon White and Dan Rolfe) only had a couple of days to turn the project around.

The 12m high, 8m wide picture was actually drawn by remote-controlled cars with paint on their wheels. It was produced by Total Fabrications, on behalf of one of Hamilton’s sponsors - Reebok.

Capita Bobrowski’s role was to check the picture’s huge 15.5m high, 10m wide, aluminium supporting edifice, advising on guying & ballast requirements and producing the required structural report.

Coverage can also be see on the Sky News Website and on YouTube:

Capita Symonds aquired Structural and Civil Engineering consultancy NRM Bobrowski in April 2008 to form Capita Bobrowski.

Speeding into the record books

Helen Loney - a Chartered Surveyor in the Blackburn office – has smashed the British Outright Ladies Water Speed Record at the famous Coniston Water in the Lake District.

Helen reached an average speed of 125.8 mph in her Formula 1 race boat ‘Crescendo’ at the annual powerboating ‘Records Week’ event, beating the previous record of 115.1 mph.

Helen also set a new Electric Outright Water Speed World Record of 76.8 mph in ‘FireFly’, her 15 ft three point hydroplane. Helen and her team – The Electric Record Team UK – specifically designed and built the boat which they hope will one day be able to break the magical 100mph barrier.

Helen – who owns her own Formula 1 race boat - has been racing on Windermere and Barrow-in-Furness Docks for over six years. Her team is sponsored by: Agni Motors, P.D.S Engineering, Capita Symonds, DHM, Exide Technologies, West Systems, Lunar, South Cumbria Construction Ltd and Cherry Concepts.

Find out more at http://www.electricrecordteam.com/

Capita Symonds career opportunities

There are currently 65 jobs being advertised on the Capita Symonds our website.

Roles are spread across the UK and include architect, accountant, project manager, civil engineer, environmental assistant, surveyor, mechanical engineer, planner.......the list goes on!

Why not have a look?
(To see our available roles on our website, simply click leave all the search fields blank, and then click "Search and Apply")

The lost invite of Atlantis?

This week sees the star-studded launch of the Atlantis hotel, The Palm, Dubai. A three day extraviganza will see the likes of Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington and Janet Jackson jetting in for the "the party of the decade". Apparently Tom Cruise has also booked his New Year party at the resort.

Situated in the middle of the crescent-shaped development, the 1,539-room, 46ha resort includes 17ha of water parks, beaches, luxury boutiques, restaurants, a nightclub, a spa and fitness club, and 5,600m² of meeting and function space. The jewel in it's crown is a suite costing a massive £23,000 a night!


Getting back to the point, Capita Bobrowski (Capita Symonds' Structural engineering firm) were involved in the project. The team, led by technical director Stuart Holdsworth and lead engineering technician Bruno Postle, designed, manufactured and installed 20 tensioned membrane shade structures covering 10,000m² at the complex.

Not sure where our invite to the bash is though (must have got lost in the post)!

Find out more about our involvement with the project
Read the Timesonline review
Go to the Atlantis Website

Watch the official video below:

Prince Charles visits Ebbw Valley railway

HRH Price Charles recently dropped by Ebbw Vale (South Wales) to visit the new railway line, which was project managed by Capita Symonds. The Prince even made a short journey on the train.

Find out more about the project, the visit and even a few facts about Price Charles himself!

Manchester's Spinningfield redevelopment near to completion

The £1bn Spinningfields project in Manchester city centre is now approaching completion.

A team from Capita Symonds’ Cheadle Hume office, led by Director Kevin Mitchell, has been providing structural, civil and geo-environmental engineering services on the mixed-use project for the past seven years.

The client, Allied London Properties, has also retained Capita Symonds in a monitoring/due diligence capacity on two buildings where they are not leading the structural design.

Heralded as ‘Manchester’s Canary Wharf’, the 22 acre development features high quality commercial, civic, residential, hotel, leisure and retail space including:

• 20 signature buildings - each one the result of a competition between leading international architects
• 4.6 million sq ft of high quality commercial, civic, residential, retail and open space
• Six acres of public space
• Five new public squares
• 2.37 million sq ft of Class A office space (25,000 workers will eventually occupy the site)
• 300,000 sq ft of complementary high-end retail and leisure areas
• 391 luxury apartments in the Left Bank complex
• A 24 floor complex featuring a four star hotel and luxury apartments

Kevin Mitchell, Capita Symonds, commented: “Spinningfields will set new standards for modern international city regeneration. The whole project has been designed, planned and implemented to create a development that will be the envy of London and the rest of Europe.”

Manchester is the UK’s fastest growing city. Since 1997, more than £700 million has been invested in transforming the city into one of Europe’s leading cultural and economic hubs with over £3 billion committed to major new real estate and infrastructure projects.

Honour for Museum in RCIS awards

A Capita Symonds project, the Kelvingrove New Century Project, has been commended in the global final of the RICS awards.

The awards - which brought together outstanding building projects from the UK, Europe and Australia - recognise excellence, value for money and a commitment to building conservation.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum saw off 74 other building projects for the ‘commended’ accolade in the building conservation category, narrowly missing out on the top spot to Beeleigh Abbey in Essex.

A team from the Glasgow office – led by Regional Director Gordon Malcolm – provided project and construction management on the £30m programme to refurbish the Glasgow museum, which is a category A-Listed Building and the fourth best attended museum in the UK.

The project, which was awarded Scotland’s largest single Heritage Lottery Grant, won the ‘Building Conservation’ category at the RICS Scotland awards earlier this year.

RICS Scotland Director Graeme Hartley said: “To be commended in a global awards final shows Scotland has world-class building projects. The judges were impressed by the scale and care taken to successfully deliver a very demanding project like Kelvingrove. As a category A-listed building, the team had to be careful to safeguard and enhance the building and its surroundings whilst bringing it into the 21st century. The number of visitors to Kelvingrove endorses the success of the project”.

Well done!

In-tune with our clients

Capita Symonds’ Health and Safety team, led by Director Nigel Daly, has launched a new service aimed at the classical music industry.

Although they are better known for their construction health and safety services for clients such as Grosvenor Estates, Morley, Aviva Investors, and Westfield, Director Nigel Daly recently recognised the need to broaden the team’s offering.

New recruit Jayne Sutton, herself a professional musician and classically trained trumpet player, hit upon the idea of offering occupational health and safety services to the classical music industry.

As a result, the team has now launched a tailored service that guides orchestra and theatre managers through complex health and safety legislation, enabling them to successfully implement a comprehensive strategy which protects both employees and employers.

Jayne says: “Since The Association of British Orchestras set out its code of best practice – the Healthy Orchestra Charter – it has become vital for orchestras to take a more proactive approach in tackling the wide variety of ailments that can afflict modern musicians. What’s more, with the Control of Noise at Work Regulations also applying to the music and entertainment industries for the first time, there are more regulations governing health and safety in the music industry than ever before.”

Also the ABO has also asked Capita Symonds to attend its annual conference which will be held in the Capita Architecture-designed Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. The exclusive event is one of the highlights in the classical music calendar and will be attended by approximately 450 senior executives and board members from the various UK orchestras.

We wish them all the best of luck for their new venture.

Best foot forward

Blackburn’s Casualty Reduction Team once again supported the recent national ‘Walk to School’ campaign.

The campaign began with School Travel Officer Cheryl Sandford (pictured left) delivering presentations about the benefits of walking to school to pupils at four local Blackburn schools.

The children were then provided with their very own ‘travel passports’ which are stamped every time they walk to school. To ensure that the campaign was accessible to all pupils a ’park and stride’ element was also introduced for those who need to travel by car, enabling them to walk the final part of the route to school.

The Walk to School Campaign is run by the charity Living Streets with funding from Department for Transport and the BIG Lottery fund. It asks parents, pupils and teachers to think about their journey to and from school and the many benefits of making it on foot.

Find out more about Capita Symonds' Road Safety Team

Blooming Marvellous

Capita Lovejoy’s Aviva Garden project has won the prestigious James Miller Trophy at the 'Flowers In The City' awards.


The Lord Mayor of London, Mr Alderman David Lewis, presented David Blackwood-Murray of Capita Lovejoy with the award at a reception at The Mansion House in London.

The Flowers in the City Campaign, which aims to “beautify” the City, was launched over forty years ago by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners in conjunction with the Corporation of London.

Whilst the Corporation maintains a considerable number of gardens and floral displays throughout the City via it's Parks and Gardens department, the Flowers in the City Campaign targets the private sector, rewarding a variety of individuals and companies.

A team from Capita Lovejoy designed the private garden at Aviva’s headquarters in St Helen's Square, London. Installed by Willerby Landscapes, the garden was conceived as an ‘oasis to celebrate life and vitality’ and provides a stunning visual amenity for visitors and staff at the adjacent Aviva Tower.

The garden is a clear, calm space structured by the use of trees, hedges and stepped terraces. Sculptural walls provide enclosure to the garden whilst permitting views into the space from an undershaft along its north boundary. A wall of slatted timber then provides a contrasting, textured finish along the southern edge of the garden while ‘Art Walls’ create a dynamic feature amongst the planting and beneath the canopy of the trees throughout the day and night.

Capita Symonds acquired land planning consultancy Lovejoy in March 2008, to form Capita Lovejoy.

Find out more about our land planning service from Capita Lovejoy

Merchants' Academy opens in Bristol

Merchants' Academy, a state of the art new school in Bristol, is now open for business.



A team from Capita Symonds’ Bristol office - led by Regional Director John Wormald – provided project management services on the Academy which will cater for 1500 students aged between 11 and 18.

Find out more about Capita Symonds involvement in Merchants' Academy

Go to the Marchants' Academy Website

Ken Dodd opens Southport's Lord Street

The £4m refurbishment to Southport's famous Lord Street shopping boulevard is now complete.

To celebrate the occasion local legend Ken Dodd was present to unveil a commemorative plaque.

A Team from Capita Symonds designed, supervised and project managed the redevelopment on behalf of Sefton Council’s Planning Department.

Find out More about the Lord Street redevelopment project




The video below is from the Liverpool Daily Post (courtesy of Sefton Borough Council):

A shining example

Ritchie Clapson, Managing Director of Capita Bobrowski, and Malcolm Richards – Director in Capita Bobrowski's Southampton office - are taking part the annual Lighthouse Run from John O’Groats to London this Sunday and Monday.

Now in its fourth year, the Lighthouse Run is a motoring race that sees teams driving over 1,500 miles while undertaking a variety of fiendish tasks and changes of route.

The event - a firm fixture in the Construction Industry calendar – raises funds for the Lighthouse Club Benevolent Fund which provides direct, practical, and financial assistance to construction workers and their families in time of need.

Over the past three years the race has raised well over £100,000 for the Benevolent Fund and is aiming to raise a further £50,000 at this year's event.

Good luck!

Find out more about the Lighthouse Run (and maybe even join in!)

Capita Symonds aquired Structural and Civil Engineering firm NRM Bobrowski in April 2008 to form Capita Bobrowski. Find out more about the acquisition or find out more about Capita Bobrowski

Jumping for joy

Three members of Capita Symonds’ Blackburn office have raised more than £1,400 for Macmillan Cancer Support with a sponsored skydive.

Andy Archer, Dave Richardson and Martin Haydock completed the 14,000 ft dive near Lancaster.

Well done boys!

See how they got on:

Fish out of troubled water

Capita Symonds Aquatic Resource Management (ARM) team have finished work on a project to repair one of Mid Wales’ most important tourist attractions.

The team, led by Project Manager Will Kennedy, provided preliminary design, project specification, and contractual services as part of the programme to restore the ecological balance of the water at Llandrindod Lake in Powys.

The high profile project, carried out on behalf of Powys County Council (PCC), was a result of a major ecological incident in 2006 which resulted in the death of thousands of fish.

As part of the work Capita Symonds undertook the preliminary design of major embankment enhancements utilising materials dredged from the lake, as well as planting a variety of native marginal plant species (not to mention liaising with multiple stakeholders to ensure that the work met the requirements of all parties). The team also assisted with the procurement of a specialist contractor in line with the constrained budget of the council.

Find out more about our Aquatic Resource Management Team

See what we did in the video:

Charity drive

Another story from Capita's 'Charity Week' activities.......

Capita Symonds and Capita Bobrowski managed to raise a total of £6,300 for Macmillan Cancer Support by holding a client drinks reception, including scalextric competition.

Thanks go to Cordek, Philips Lighting, Flaktwoods and Condek for sponsoring the F1 scalextric cars (this alone raised £1,000 for the charity) and to everyone for their kind support and donations.

Capita Symonds & ICE Safety Lecture 08

The 17th annual Capita Symonds & ICE Safety Lecture lecture took place yesterday (22nd October) in London

This year's guest speaker was Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, John Armitt. John presented his paper entitled "Combining Safety, Health and Environment - have we succeeded?"

Find out more about the lecture and view the transcript

NB: Further write-ups to follow.

Urban Vision saves the day for Rugby Club

Urban Vision stepped in to help Eccles & Salford Juniors Rugby League club after the team’s goal posts were sawn in half by vandals.

The timber posts were donated around 20 years ago – and were thought to be amongst the tallest in the UK.

Urban Vision paid for the replacement posts which were installed in time for the first game of the new season – a 20-18 victory over Waterhead from Oldham.

The posts feature Urban Vision branding on the post protector pads and, as a special thank you, the club has also added the company’s logo to the team’s shirts.

Alfrieda Kindon, secretary of Eccles & Salford Juniors said: “Club members were devastated at the destruction of the posts, which were historically important within rugby league, simply for their sheer scale. We are very grateful to Urban Vision for stepping in to provide us with new posts and we’re looking forward to them having just as long an association with the club as their predecessors.”

Professional rugby league player Adrian Morley - who once played for Eccles ARL - also visited the ground prior to flying out to Australia with the England team for the forthcoming Rugby League World Cup. He said: “It's such a shame what happened to the rugby posts, Urban Vision's magnificent gesture is a great support for the club”.

Bill Taylor, managing director of Urban Vision added: “As a local company heavily involved in the top ranks of rugby league through our work with Salford Reds we were very happy to get involved at grass roots level by providing Eccles & Salford Juniors with the new posts.”

Urban Vision Urban Vision is a ground breaking multi-disciplinary organisation, formed as a joint venture between Salford City Council, Capita Symonds and Morrison Highways Maintenance. Find out more about Urban Vision

The show must go on

Don't forget to remember the sparkle....

Games of conkers banned in schools ... litter bins removed for attracting wasps ... hundreds of trees cut down for fear of falling branches ... pantomime stars banned from throwing sweets into audiences ... cross country runs seen as too dangerous ... ‘outdoor’ pursuits for children banned ... pancake runs squashed... and Santa Claus in a shopping centre made to wear a body harness in his 5mph sleigh ...

Many ‘Health & Safety’ stories in the tabloids are apocryphal but there is no doubt that in recent years we have seen the growth of a risk adverse society. The madness may be under threat from Gordon Brown’s new risk assessment watchdog (The Risk and Regulation Advisory Council) - but I sometimes wonder “How did we get here?”

Having worked in entertainment and leisure safety for many years I can honestly say that some of the events I attend nowadays are, quite frankly, boring. Events are supposed to be exciting, stimulating and fun. The public now, more often than not, wish to participate rather than watch, to push the boat out, seek a buzz, an adrenalin rush …but a serous paranoia has gripped event organizers, leading to many cancellations and/or curtailment of activities.

Admittedly, this paranoia is sometimes understandable as it’s a direct result of successful compensation claims by the public fuelled by over zealous legal eagles and a lack of risk management protocols. For example, the public have been successful in even the most bizarre claims for compensation - climbing over a perimeter fence and falling down a rabbit hole being one of my particular favourites! Nevertheless, this cotton wool culture is seriously destroying the event industry’s spirit of adventure, fun, enjoyment, fulfilment and excitement. It’s time to put things into perspective and actually get to grips with certain issues.

We need a better understanding of the law and, in particular, risk assessments. Health & Safety legislation requires employers to ensure that work places/activities are safe - including events. Of course, risk assessment of the activities must be carried out to deal with significant hazards and appropriate control measures must be put in place. However, only reasonable foreseeable significant hazards are to be considered and reasonably practicable control measures put in place - based on potential likelihood and severity. It’s basically commonsense and recognises you cannot, or indeed be expected to, guarantee an event is 101% safe.

Proper risk assessments by competent persons can achieve good legal safety precautions for almost any activity. An innovative, practical, pragmatic problem solving, creative approach to hazard control can be very rewarding - resulting in more exciting, stimulating, challenging events with new diverse, unorthodox, ‘dangerous’ activities accommodated. Paranoid over zealous, nit picking, paper producing processes do nothing of any value. Properly thought out safety procedures that are put into practice on the day need to be appropriate but not stifling. Risk has to be managed, but it cannot always be removed - and nor should it.

We need to put on a show, to entertain and thrill crowds. With risk assessments and skilled, creative, event Health & Safety officials we can still put on shows of which Barnum himself would have been proud.

Richard Limb, Director of Capita Symonds’ Leisure and Event Safety team

Links:

• Find out more about Capita Symonds' Leisure and Event Safety Team
• Enroll on the Diploma in Events Safety Management developed by Derby University and Capita Symonds
• What to know what's true and what's myth in the world of health and safety? Have a look at the Myth of the Month page on the Health & Safety Executive website

Capita Symonds comes 6th in Top Consultancy list

Capita Symonds has been listed 6th in Building Magazine's Top 250 Consultancies list. Capita Architecture also came 6th in the Top 100 Architects list.

We are also listed as 7th in the Top 100 Fee Earners list

See full article and results in Building Magazine

Award for Street Lighting discussion paper

David Denner (Asset Manager in our Cwmbran office) has won an award from the Institution of Lighting Engineers (ILE) for Best Regional Paper 2008.

David's paper, "Street Lighting: An Engineer’s Perspective", discussed the evolving role of street lighting engineers in helping to maintain safe public highways in the face of ever decreasing budgets, greater demands from the community, increasing energy costs and changes in legislation.

Until recently, David was the Street Lighting Engineer at Caerphilly County Borough Council, responsible for the day to day management of the street lighting group. He has 18 years experience within the public sector, working for various local highway authorities in South Wales.

David has also been instrumental in the co-ordination of the energy tender for the South Wales consortium - which consists of all the Unitary Authorities in South Wales involved in the procurement of street lighting energy - along with the management of the consortium's photo cell array and associated software.

Well done David.

New Appointment for Acoustics Team

Our Acoustics team has just appointed Susan Witterick as Senior Acoustic Consultant.

Susan joins from Applied Acoustic Design and has over 10 years’ experience covering a variety of acoustical disciplines and project types.

She has recently specialised in acoustical design for offices and schools and also has significant experience in HVAC noise control - recently designing teaching, recording and performance spaces at the Cork School of Music.

Susan has also worked extensively on environmental noise projects including the Eastern Quarry development in Kent, the M50 Motorway Widening and Expansion in Dublin, and transportation noise issues at Los Angeles International Airport and The Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Dr Rukhsana Adam, Director of Acoustics & Air Quality, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Susan to the team – her experience in large architectural and environmental schemes will help us build both our internal client base within our Design and Infrastructure divisions and external clients such as Balfour Beatty and Kier.”

As well as her acoustic expertise Susan has a keen interest in Cornish history and genealogy, and has an MA in Cornish Studies.

Find out more about our Capita Symonds' Acoustics services and Projects

Capita Symonds on TV

Capita Symonds hit the small screen this weekend in a programme entitled "Careers in the Environmental Sector".

The show aired on Saturday at 6:30pm on Information TV (SKY Digital channel 166 & FreeSat channel 406).

The show, which was presented by Gail Porter, included interviews from the following Capita Symonds employees:

• John Southgate, Executive Director - Infrastructure
• Nadia Dew, Senior Environmental Consultant
• Paul Landsborough, Associate Director
• Victoria King, Graduate in the Flood Risk and Water Management Team
• Paul Hlinovsky, Senior Engineer, Flood Risk and Water Management Team

Don't worry if you missed it - the programme can also be viewed at Careers TV

Capita Symonds shortlisted for CMA 08 Award

We have been shortlisted for the Construction Marketing Awards 08 for "Best Use of Events & Exhibitions", for our stand at the 'Think 08' sustainability exhibition.

The full shortlist for all awards will be announced on 20th October on the CMA 08 website

The winners will be announced on 27th November 2008. Fingers crossed!

Find out more about our Capita Symonds at Think 08

Find out more about Sustainability within Capita Symonds

Watch our video from Think 08:

Liane Sheppard Nominated for Welsh Woman of the Year Award

Liane – Director of the new Capita Glamorgan Consultancy – has been nominated for the prestigious Welsh Woman of the Year awards.

Liane is one of three finalists in the ‘Woman in Construction & The Built Environment’ category – one of ten categories in total.

The winners of each category will be announced - along with the overall winner (the Welsh Woman of the Year) – at a gala ceremony on Friday 21st November at Cardiff International Arena.

Liane has 15 years experience in civil engineering - from graduate up to Chartered Engineer status – and has worked on a wide variety of schemes from traffic calming to major infrastructure projects.

Mark Rees-Williams, Director of the Capita Gwent Consultancy (Cwmbran) office, said: “Liane’s energy, enthusiasm and positive approach to business is obvious to all who meet her and her achievements to date are a great motivation to the many women in our company.”

Capita Glamorgan Consultancy is a ground breaking joint ventures with Capita Symonds and Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Councils. The JV is worth £75m and will deliver major highways, transportation, engineering, construction, environmental and related projects across the local authorities and the rest of South Wales.

We could be heros......

Our East Grinstead office recently held “Heroes Day” which saw staff dressing as their favourite superhero to raise money for numerous worthy causes - part of Capita’s “Charity Week” festivities.

The prize for best fancy dress had to go to Matt Quilty for his brilliant outfit - there’s nothing more bizarre than seeing Superman stood at the photocopier. Highly honorable mentions also have to go to Mark Hirst’s Milk Tray Man and Jackie Fraser’s Supergirl outfits.

Mark, Jackie and Matt

For some extra fun a group of ‘willing’ volunteers from the senior staff took the stocks for a wet sponge attack - with everyone paying £1 for four sponges to soak their victims.

Huge thanks go to Dave Baird, Tony Blake, Simon Reeves, Mark Hirst and special guest Jonathan Goring (our MD) who were all good sports and took their turn in the stocks.

The East Grinstead team managed to raise £355 which now brings them very close to their £10,000 fundraising target for the year.

A big thanks to everyone who took part and donated money.

First BSF schools open in Lancashire

The first major wave of schools designed and built by the government’s BSF (Building Schools for the Future) programme have opened now in Lancashire.

Seven new ground-breaking schools – catering for over 2000 students - have opened over three sites - Burnley (Burnley Campus), Nelson (Pendle Vale) and Padiham (Shuttleworth College).

Capita Symonds is providing educational, partnering, architectural and engineering services on a number of the projects which have been specifically designed to transform the way that learning takes place – a core objective of the BSF initiative – as well as reflecting the needs of the wider community.

The Capita Symonds multi-disciplinary team has been led by Project Director, Simon Jones; Design Director, Richard Dinsdale; Lead Consultant Lucy Dean and Alan Ayre; Director of Educational Projects James Cowlishaw; and with educational support from Jane Longfield.

The £29m Pendle Vale College and Pendle Vale High School site in Nelson (below) brings together two schools under one roof with the aim of achieving greater integration between the two. The sloping site has been used to create a new local landmark with a building that rises in tiers to four storeys and is capped by a sweeping roofline. Sports pitches and indoor sports resources are all built to Sports England standards to support the school’s aims to achieve specialist sports college status.

Burnley Campus (below) is the biggest of three sites and contains schools for both sixth form and primary students, costing £31 million to build and equip . It boasts a 50-place nursery and children’s centre; a library and faith centre; all-weather sports pitches; fitness centre; climbing wall; sports hall; and hydrotherapy pool.

Finally, the £20m Shuttleworth College in Padiham (below) features an entrance area dominated by a dramatic floor-to-ceiling atrium that echoes the designs of modern office buildings. Facilities include a dance studio, sports hall, fitness room, tennis courts, all weather sports pitches, a café and faith centre.

“The projects demonstrate the positive impact design can have on developing new ways of learning, supporting the 14- 19 agenda around vocational learning, and encouraging students to stay on for Further Education,” said James Cowlishaw Capita Symonds' Director of Educational Projects, and LEP Director.

This year marks the biggest opening of new schools for decades with 51 new academies, 24 funded by Building Schools for the Future and more than 150 other new build schools.

Forthcoming Events

Capita Symonds will be attending a number of conferences and events over the coming months.

Why not come along and meet us:

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INTEGRATED TRANSPORT LONDON - Silver Sponsors
Thursday 6th November, Novotel London St Pancras

The Capital’s most prestigious and topical event surrounding the delivery of the Transport Strategy for London and the implementation of a sustainable post-Olympic infrastructure.

Find out more about Integrate Transport London

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PASSENGER TRANSPORT 2008 - Exhibitors
Thursday 13 November 2008, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Planning for our Future Passenger Transport Needs

Find out more about Passenger Transport 2008

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ASSET 2008 - Exhibitor
Thursday 20th November, QEII Centre, London

Managing and relocating the Government estates

Find out more about Asset 08

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THAMES GATEWAY FORUM 2008
Wednesday 26th – Thursday 27th November, ExCel, Docklands

The only event dedicated to bringing together the organisations involved in regenerating the Thames Gateway

Find out more about Thames Gateway Forum 2008
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New Appointment - Alistair Kirk, Director of Engineering and Technology

We have recently appointed Alistair Kirk as our new Director of Engineering and Technology for our Infrastructure Division.

Alistair was previously Director of Controls at Laing O'Rourke, responsible for mitigating pre-contract business risk and assuring project outturns.

He has also worked as Programme Controls Director for Network Rail, managing their projects and engineering works nationally encompassing planning, project controls, estimating and risk management functions.

He also spent 15 years in the defence industry with BAE Systems holding a number of senior management positions, latterly as programme director for the Royal Navy's latest batch of warships and leading one of its aerospace support business units.

Alistair Kirk will be based across our London and East Grinstead offices.

Mossband Viaduct and Eask Bridge videos

NCE (New Civil Engineer) magazine have recently posted a couple of videos on YouTube featuring projects Capita Symonds have been involved in.

Mossband Viaduct and Esk Bridge Move
Both of these projects are part of the bigger "M6 Extension project" to fill the missing link between Scotland and England - currently there is a 9km gap in motorway from the top of the M6 in Carlisle to the A74(M) near Gretna. The new stretch of motorway should ease safety concerns and create a through flow of traffic to and from Scotland on this major route.

Capita Symonds are providing Environmental Assessment, Management and Design, Geotechnical Engineering, Highway Design and Structural Engineering on the project.

Find out more about the M6 Extension project and our involvement


Mossband Viaduct


Esk Bridge Move

http://www.nce.co.uk/

New - Book Health & Safety Training Courses Online

Our Health & Safety Training team, have now launched an online booking form, to make it easier and quicker to sign up for their courses.

Capita Symonds provides many health and safety courses including, IOSH, NEBOSH, CDM 2007, Managing Contractors Safely and Health and Safety leadership.

Find out more about our Health and Safety Training Courses, including courses, dates, venues and presenters.

She bangs the drums.....well a marimba anyway

Justine Lloyd - Project Support for Capita Symonds’ Telecomms division in Cheadle Hulme – has won two major Drum Corp (an American style marching band) awards recently.

Every Saturday Justine (5th from left below) gets up at 0430am to travel from Poynton in the North West to Eastleigh in Hampshire (over 200 miles) to play the ‘Marimba’ (similar to a xylophone) in The Senators band.

The effort is certainly worth it as the team recently won the Drum Corp UK (DCUK) Championship for the eighth time.

What’s more, a week later they beat 20 teams from five countires to win the European Championships (DCE) in the Netherlands - the second year running they’ve won the award – 'drumming' up (sorry) a spectacular 90.20 points out of a 100 in the process.

Capita Symonds Video

If you want to find out more about life in Capita Symonds, our projects, working for us and more, have a look at some of our videos:

Go to our YouTube Channel
See videos on the Capita Symonds website

or watch some of them below:

Capita Symonds at Think 08


Jonathan Goring (our MD) talks about Successful People, Projects and Performance


Rob Firth talks about Capita Architecture


Working at Capita Symonds


Working at Capita Architecture


Wales Millennium Centre - Cardiff


Regeneration and Communities

Jobs at Capita Symonds

We currently have 68 jobs listed on the Capita Symonds vacancy board!

The roles are located across the UK, and across many of our varied disciplines.

View our current jobs

We also have a Graduate Structural Engineer vacancy in London.

View our current Graduate vacancies

Annual Safety Lecture - 22nd October 2008

The annual Capita Symonds / ICE Annual Safety Lecture on will be held on 22nd October 2008

This year's subject will be "Combining Safety, Health and Environment - have we succeeded?", and will be hosted by John Armitt, CBE FREng FlCEChairman, Olympic Delivery Authority.

In this lecture John will reflect on the move in recent years in corporate governance from just safety to safety, health and environment; the expectations in the performance of the industry; and the roles of the respective players: clients, designers, contractors/suppliers.

For more information and to register go to the Capita Symonds website

Find our more about Capita Symonds' Health and Safety Training courses (including IOSH & NEBOSH)

Capita Symonds Volunteers redecorate Sheffield School

60 volunteers from Capita and Capita Symonds’ Sheffield offices recently spent three days revamping a local primary school.

The voluntary scheme – which was organised in conjunction with South Yorkshire Cares, a Business in the Community initiative – saw employees from Capita’s local offices – Capita Symonds, Capita Hartshead, Capita Group Marketing and Veredus – helping to spruce up the nearby Springfield School.

Led by Project Manager Andrew Borthwick, a Capita Symonds team redecorated the school’s IT suite, school reception area and staff room kitchen.

Michelle Tilney, Community Coordinator of Business in the Community said: “We are really pleased that so many volunteers joined this exciting project. This project created a colourful and lively environment for the children to study, staff to work in and visitors to enjoy.”

Andy Borthwick added: “This was a great opportunity to make a real difference in the local community and for our employees from a wide range of business to work together. We have been

working with Business in the Community on a range of projects and we look forward to many more to come”.

See related article in South Yorkshire's "The Star" newpaper

Bjørvika Tunnel project reaches key stage

A Capita Symonds project in Norway has reached a major milestone with the immersion of the first tunnel element in the Bjørvika Immersed Tunnel project in Oslo harbour.

The 600m long structure - part of a much longer network of tunnels carrying traffic beneath the city on the E18 highway – is made up of of six tunnel elements and will eventually carry a dual three-lane highway under the harbour. It is the first ever immersed tunnel in Norway

A Capita Symonds team – led by Associate Director Jon Baber – has been working on the project since 1999 when we provided advice on the project’s feasibility.

We also provided outline design and detailed design of the tunnel structure - working with Norwegian consultants Aas Jakobsen - as well as preparing contract documents. Our team is currently providing advice and site support during the construction phase.

The tunnelling contract is linked to the redevelopment of the harbour area which includes a new opera house as well as commercial and residential districts. The remaining tunnel elements are due to be in place by mid October before work starts on the road construction and the installation of the various mechanical and electrical systems. The €300m highway tunnel is due to open to traffic in 2010 with the remainder of the harbour development planned to be complete around 2012.

The immersed tube tunnel technique is highly specialised and Capita Symonds is one of only a few consultants in the world with the expertise to deliver this type of project.
The work involves the construction of large box-shaped tunnel elements in dry docks, or purpose built basins, which are then sealed with bulkheads before being floated up and towed to site where they are sunk into a pre-dredged trench in the river or sea bed. The tunnel elements are then joined together with a complex arrangement of watertight gaskets and, once backfilled, the road or railway can then be constructed internally.

Capita Symonds’ client on the project is the Norwegian Public Roads Administration while the contractor for the immersed tunnel is a joint venture between Skanska, BAM and Volker Stevin.

Our portfolio of immersed tunnel projects extends to over 30 major international schemes. It includes the Conwy Tunnel in North Wales, the Medway tunnel in Kent, the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork, Ireland and the largest concrete immersed tunnel in the world - the Øresund Tunnel between Denmark and Sweden. Our other current projects include the Limerick Tunnel in Ireland and the Tyne Tunnel in Newcastle where the team is providing technical advice to the lending bank.

WORKS digital launches

Today we've officially launched WORKS digital on our website.

It's an online guide to Capita Symonds - who we are, what we do and where we are across the UK. It's really easy to use and tells you all about the vast array of services we provide.

Have a look and let us know what you think! www.capitasymonds.co.uk/works

Cabot Circus shopping mall opens in Bristol today.........

........with a little help from Capita Symonds

The exciting new Cabot Circus shopping development in Bristol City Centre opens today. And Capita Symonds played an important part in it's development.

Working on behalf of The Bristol Alliance, a four party consortium of retail and infrastructure developers and funding companies, we provided the transportation and highway engineering design for this major redevelopment of Bristol’s main shopping area.

In the later stages of the projects, we were also appointed to work for the development contractors on the Public Realm Regeneration Scheme, which included all new paving, street furniture and drawings.

The scheme comprises a mix of land uses, including up to 60,0002 of offices, 400 new homes, a car park for 2,500 cars with associated variable message signing, and a package of measures to improve accessibility by public transport including real time passenger information systems.

To allow development the scheme required the major diversion of the primary road network including the main gyratory junction at the city centre end of Bristol’s central motorway link, the M32, and diversion of major utilities infrastructure. The new design includes surface level crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, to ensure the dual carriageway isn’t a barrier to entry.

See our case study

Find out more about Cabot Circus

Groundbreaking graduate development programme in 'Regions' Offices

Our Regions division have just launched ‘BusinessWise’ - a groundbreaking graduate 'business skills' development programme designed in partnership with our Salford joint venture ‘Urban Vision’ and the University of Salford.

58 members of staff from our ‘Regions’ offices in Altrincham, Blackburn, Colwyn Bay, Cumbria, Cwmbran, Durham, Salford, Sefton, Southampton and Swindon have signed up to start the two-year programme.

Students will complete a 'Postgraduate Certificate in Business Performance Management' which has been specifically developed for Capita Symonds and Urban Vision.
Much of the teaching will take place at our offices, with one module also featuring two days’ retreat at a camp in Snowdonia.

Teaching on the course is also combined, with University of Salford tutors delivering theoretical and subject-based modules, and working with staff to deliver company-specific teaching and learning in the work place.

Capita Symonds staff enrolling on BusinessWise course

Fancy working at Capita Symonds? Visit the Careers section of our website

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Capita Symonds blog! We'll keep you up to date with the latest new, events and general going-on within Capita Symonds here.

For more information about us as a company visit www.capitasymonds.co.uk